Edwin S. Rubenstein President, ESR Research, economic consultants, has 25 years experience in business research, financial analysis, and economics journalism. Mr. Rubenstein joined Hudson Institute, a public policy think tank headquartered in Indianapolis, as Director of Research in November 1997. At Hudson he wrote proposals and conducted research on a wide array of topics, including workforce development, the impact of AIDS on South Africa's labor force, Boston's "Big Dig" the economic impact of transportation infrastructure, and the future of the private water industry in the U.S.

As a journalist, Mr. Rubenstein was a contributing editor at Forbes Magazine and economics editor at National Review, where his "Right Data" column was featured for more than a decade. TV appearances include Firing Line, Bill Moyers, McNeil-Lehr, CNBC, and Debates-Debates. In The Right Data (National Review Press, 1994), Rubenstein debunks many widely held beliefs surrounding the distribution of income, government spending, and the nature of economic growth.

Mr. Rubenstein is also an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute where he is principal investigator in the institute's ongoing analysis of New York State's budget and tax structure. He also published a newsletter devoted to economic statistics and contributed regularly to The City Journal, the Manhattan Institute's quarterly. From 1980 to 1986 he was senior economist at W.R. Grace & Co. where he directed studies of government waste and inefficiency for the Grace Commission.

From 1978 to 1980 he was a municipal bond analyst for Moody's Investors Service where he was also editor of the Bond Survey, a weekly review of the municipal bond market.&nbsp; He served as senior quantitative analyst for the Office of the Mayor of New York City from 1973 to 1978. He also was staff economist for the New York State Commission on Education (the Fleischman Commission), and was principal investigator on a study of multinational corporations published by the Institute for Public Administration. Mr. Rubenstein has a B.A. in economics from Johns Hopkins, and an M.A. in public finance from ColumbiaUniversity.